The tricksters
Those characters are always up to mischief. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, of course. Sometimes you need to start trouble in order to inspire change. Those who carry the title of ‘the trickster’ are usually seen in a bad light because of their actions, which if you read some of the myths about these archetypes, can sometimes be nefarious at best, but they usually teach social, ethical, and political values through puzzles, games, or twists of fate. A trickster can be an animal, spirit, or sometimes a god.
This particular trickster, which is very popular with the show American Gods on Starz, is the god Anansi, generally referred to as the god of stories of West African mythology. My favorite myth is how he got that title. The story goes as follows, Anansi the spider threw a web up into the sky, to confront the sky god Nyame, asking him to share all the stories of the world. So Nyame gives Anansi a challenge: If Anansi could bring to Nyame’s court Python the snake, Cheetah the fanged, the nests full of Hornets, and the fairy Mmoatia, then Anansi can have the box of stories. So Anansi agrees to this deal, thinking up new and clever ways to get the creatures to the sky court over the next four days. With the help of his wife Aso, and his son Ntikuma, Anansi goes into the forest to look for Python, and, waving a big stick in the air proclaimed that the stick was much longer than the Python. The Python slithered from the branch over their head, slithered down and stretched it’s long body alongside it, so that Anansi could easily wrap his strongest web around the thrashing web, then turned the big snake over to the sky god. Next, was the capture of the Cheetah. Appeasing to it’s ego, Anansi got a basket and claimed that the Cheetah was too small for it, but the Cheetah, undeterred, tried it on for size. Anansi quickly tied the bag around him, and dropped it off at the sky court, going after the hornets next. To catch the hornets, Anansi and his son go back into the forest, and carrying two big jugs of water, a empty gourd, and rope, they find the hornets nest, where very quietly they lift up both buckets and dump the water into the nest. The hornets, aggravated, came swarming out which brings Anansi to hold open the gourd, which he then sealed over and sent again to the sky court.
The final task that plagued Anansi was how to trick Mmotia, who was magic, into the sky court. His wife Aso had them both carve a wooden doll, and cover it in thick layer of sap from the nearby gum tree. Then they put the doll in a nice clearing and waited a long time. Then, they heard Mmotia scream at the doll because she thinks the doll is another fairy. Because it’s a doll, and is unresponsive, Mmoatia smacks it, claiming the doll’s rudeness. The doll’s sap causes Mmoatia’s hand to get stuck, and soon enough Anansi can bring a stuck Mmoatia to the sky court, winning the box of stories from a displeased Nyame, who didn’t believe he would win, and took it back to Earth. There goes the story of Anansi and the Box of Stories.
